


How to hunt Christmas trees (and fall in love)

by mllelouise



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 25 Days of Sterek, A little bit of angst, But not that much, Christmas, First Kiss, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Monster of the Week, Mostly it's nonsense and cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:45:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8764705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mllelouise/pseuds/mllelouise
Summary: Sometimes dreams do come true. But what if they're nightmares that might kill you?Or, Derek and Stiles go tree hunting. Literally.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Sterek Season's 25 Days of Sterek](https://sterekseason.tumblr.com/post/153919217257/25-days-of-sterek-holiday-prompts-and-aus-happy)  
> The prompt for Day 2 was: Christmas tree hunting.

 “Oh no,” Stiles jolts out of sleep and sits up in his bed, his dream still very vivid in his mind. He grabs his phone to call Derek who picks up right after the first ring.

“How bad is it?” he asks right away and Stiles pictures him already halfway to the door, shoes and car keys in hand. Stiles would be sorry about waking Derek up in the middle of the night if he had the time, but they don’t.

He sighs, looking for a way to answer that. “Worse than yesterday and way less adorable than the day before. I’m sending you the address now.”

It’s been three days since this nonsense started. Three days since Stiles accidentally read a spell to make his dreams come true and three nights since they did. Literally.

The house full of cats was manageable. Too many white hairs on dark pants but, also, cuddles all day long and cats purring into Stiles’ ears. And Derek’s ears too because after rolling his eyes at the sight of Stiles drowned in a sea of fluffy balls of happiness, he caved in and joined them on the floor.

The second night was … wet. Stiles dreamed of pirates and mermaids and found himself on a ship in a stormy sea, trying to avoid being noticed by the crew and ending up on the plank. He failed of course but was actually welcomed aboard by his newfound pirate friends, captivated by his dream spell story. They were unanimous about how to break it, Stiles had to live each dream through until he found his one true dream, the one hidden behind less meaningful ones, the one he would have to make happen in real life.

So when Stiles dreams about killer Christmas trees, he wakes up knowing this is certainly not his one true dream, and he’s gonna spend many more nights fighting his own imagination.

-

When Stiles gets to Beacon Hills City Hall, Derek is already waiting in front of the Christmas tree market. It’s closed but Stiles can see Derek listening to something coming from inside.

“So?” Stiles asks.

“I can hear voices, mumbling. Anger.” He sighs. “The Christmas trees are angry,” he shakes his head, “I can't believe I’m actually saying those words.”

“Yeah well I can’t dream about puppies every night, I guess,” Stiles snorts.

“Okay, in your dream, how did you fight the trees?”

“Some magic purple powder I threw at them, I grabbed what was the closest to that from my stuff” Stiles says, taking a small bag out of his backpack. “And your claws,” Stiles adds like it’s obvious Derek was in his dream, helping.

Derek doesn’t comment on that, he takes a deep breath, letting his claws out then leads the way to the center of the market through alleys and alleys of trees, following the mumbling.

The moment they reach the center, the trees stop mumbling for a moment and it seems like they’re staring at those two intruders. Then all at once they move, like walking, toward Derek and Stiles, branches lashing out, targeting their faces and limbs, scratching, tearing through the fabric of their clothes. Stiles feels a cut on his forearm, sees the blood dripping on the frozen grass.

He does his best to destroy the trees with magic while Derek uses all his strength to keep them at bay and tear down as many branches as he can, until they’re standing in front of the last of them, tall and dark and- yes, it seems to be the angriest tree of all. They fight together as one and manage to bring the tree down. It screams and flails its branches but they hold on so Stiles can blow some purple powder on it. It calms down, but doesn’t burst into ashes like the others before.

“We caught the evil tree Stiles, why isn’t it going back to being just a tree? What’s different from your dream?” Derek asks, straddling the tree to keep it on the ground.

Stiles closes his eyes, replaying his dream in his mind, pulling as many memories of it to consciousness.

“Oh no,” he says. His dream didn’t end with defeating the tree. There was more. How could he forgot the- “Oh no,” he says again, with more despair.

“What? Stiles, what?”

Stiles shakes his head. No way he can share that, no way.

“Whatever it is Stiles you need to tell me and you need to tell me right now because I’m not gonna hold that damn tree forever.”

“It’s gonna ruin everything, I can’t, you don’t understand Derek.”

“Pretty sure getting killed by Christmas trees is what’s gonna ruin everything,” Derek says, pushing harder on the branches trying to punch him in the face.

“Trust me, it’s worse.” Stiles is aware his voice betrays how pathetic he feels, he knows Derek can already smell the panic rising in his chest.

“Hey,” Derek says as gently as he can, untangling one of his hand from the tree to cup Stiles’ face. “Breathe, Stiles. Whatever it is, I know it’s just a dream okay, it doesn’t have to make sense or be realistic, I know that and I promise you I won’t laugh or judge you on that.”

Stiles bites his lips, gathering the courage to speak up. “Except it was, realistic I mean, very realistic and something I actually do want.” He feels a little pressure from Derek’s fingers, knows it’s his way of encouraging him to keep talking. “The dream ended with you kissing me.” 

Stiles feels Derek’s hand shiver on his face, he waits for Derek to back away, whether disgusted or disappointed. Both probably.

“That’s-” Derek tries to clear his throat. “Okay I didn’t expect that. You never-” he sighs.

“I never said anything,” Stiles says, “because I didn’t want to risk losing you, and now it’s exactly what’s going to happen.” His eyes keep scanning the ground, avoiding to look up to Derek, unable to handle the rejection, on top of everything this night has thrown at them. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I understand,” Derek finally says and Stiles can’t help but snorting. “I really do,” Derek repeats, thumb slowly caressing Stiles’ lower lip.

The touch makes Stiles look up.

“I never expected to-” Derek closes his eyes for one second then smiles, locking eye contact with Stiles. “I never expected you.” He leans in, slowly, giving Stiles time to understand what he just confessed, time to adjust and decides if he meant what he said about wanting this for real.

He leans in slowly and Stiles feels his heart racing in his chest but the tree launches one branch to Derek’s face, making him stumble and fall back on the ground.

“Holly sh-” Stiles battles the branches that are now attacking him, until he’s kneeling beside Derek. The mark around his eye is already fading but the pain lingers.

“Hey,” Stiles says, taking Derek’s face between his palms.

“Hey.”

The tree is now aiming at Stiles’ throat dangerously. “Okay,” Stiles says, “maybe we skip the romance and kill that freaking dream and later we can-” he’s interrupted by Derek’s lips on his own and it feels like fireworks from his toes to the hair on his neck. The tree lets go of them but they don’t even notice, too mesmerized by the touch of each other, too eager to explore whatever their lips dare to reach.

-

Stiles keeps dreaming every night, absurd or cheesy or dark dreams, but none of them comes to life anymore, because like the pirates said, once your one true dream has come true, no fantasy can threaten reality.


End file.
